Recommended Posts

Chapter 27, Words Lodged Elsewhere, Section A

 

tl Brook Ziporyn:

 

Almost all of my words are presented as coming from the mouths of other people, and of those the better part are further presented as citations from weighty ancient authorities. But all such words are actually spillover-goblet words, giving forth [new meanings] constantly, harmonizing them all through their Heavenly Transitions.

 

The nine-tenths or so attributed to others discuss a topic by borrowing an outside viewpoint. A father does not serve as matchmaker for his own son, for the praises of the father are no equal to those from the mouth of another - and the blame too then goes not to me, but to someone else! [in any case], those who agree will be responsive, while those who do not will object. For people call right whatever agrees with them and call wrong whatever differs from them.

 

The seven-tenths or so that are presented as citations from weighty ancient authorities are meant to defuse garrulous faultfinding, eliciting agreement with the words of these "venerable elders" instead. [but in fact], some of those who come before us in years, if they have not gone through the warp and the woof of things, from the root to the tip, in a way befitting their age, do not have any real priority over us. A man [of advanced years] with nothing to give him priority over others has not fulfilled the course of a human being, and a human being devoid of the course of a human being should really just be called a stale, obsolete oldster.

 

These spillover-goblet words give forth [new meanings] constantly, so that all are harmonized through their Heavenly Transitions. They extend on and on without break and thus can remain in force to the end of one's years. When nothing is said, everything is equal. But words and this original equality are then not equal to each other. Thus it is that I speak only nonspeech. When you speak nonspeech, you can talk all your life without ever having said a word, or never utter a sound without ever failing to say something. There is some place from which each saying is acceptable, and some place from which it is unacceptable. There is some place from which it is so, and some place from which it is not so. Whence so? From being affirmed so. Whence not so? From being denied to be so. Whence acceptable? From someone accepting it. Whence unacceptable? From someone not accepting it. There is necessarily some perspective from which each thing is right and acceptable. Thus, all things are right; all things are acceptable. So what words other than spillover-goblet words, harmonizing through their Heavenly Transitions, could remain in force for very long? All beings are seeds of one another, yielding back and forth their different forms, beginning and ending like a circle, so that no fixed groupings apply. This is called Heaven the Potter's Wheel. It is Heaven the Potters Wheel that we see in their Heavenly Transitions.

 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ziporyn: A hinged vessel that tips and empties when it gets too full.

 

As a mediary, one is only passing something from another, pointing at the way but not proclaiming the way. There is no use of force, no proclamation that must be defended against, for in the end whatever truth emerges comes from another source, and is merely passed along, shaped, and carried by "me".

 

The key here in disallowing the words from becoming confused with the truth, is to avoid proclaiming the truth in an absolute way, that could demand a defense as another proclaims that absolute non-true. Here I say this is the key, which is something rather absolute, and if you disagree I am called to defend what is stuck in my words against what you proclaim. Thus if there is no key, and if the truth is free to emerge or not emerge on it's own, those who hear the words are free to see a truth, or to see a not-truth, as both are contained within everything. And since There is necessarily some perspective from which each thing is right and acceptable. Thus, all things are right; all things are acceptable. So what words other than spillover-goblet words, harmonizing through their Heavenly Transitions, could remain in force for very long?

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A NEVER-STABLE WORD: ZHUANGZI'S "ZHIYAN" 卮言 AND 'TIPPING-VESSEL' IRRIGATION


    Daniel Fried

Early China 01/2007; 31:145-170. DOI: 10.2307/23354214

ABSTRACT The zhiyan described in the "Entrusted Words" chapter of the Zhuangzi ("Zhiyan come forth daily, and are harmonized with the heavenly divisions; through this they spread out, and thus years draw to a close") have long aroused debate and confusion among readers, as the word zhi usually refers to a type of wine goblet.

 

Contemporary readers cannot easily obtain clear assistance from traditional commentaries, because the mainstream of Zhuangzi scholarship has been disturbed by Guo Xiang's original notes: "This zhi is [a thing which] tips when full, rights when empty, and does not stay fixed." The questions which arise from this note are two: (1) What sort of goblet could "tip when full, right when empty"? And (2) how would this remarkable behavior on the part of the goblet relate to the original text of the Zhuangzi?

 

Happily, Guo Xiang's gloss is similar to a paragraph from the Xunzi in which Confucius is said to note an "urging vessel" in the hall of Duke Huan of Lu which also "leans when empty, rights [itself] when half-full, and tips over when full." Early strata of material from the later text of the Wenzi also mention this "urging vessel" as a kind of ancient ritual object prone to tipping over. Although a few readers have considered the relationship between Guo Xiang's gloss and the text of the Xunzi, only in the past several decades has there accumulated enough historical data to provide readers with a more comprehensive background for interpretation.

 

Mainland Chinese archaeologists working in the 1950's discovered a "narrow-bottomed jug" (or, "tipping-vessel") which, because its handles were located below the center of gravity, tipped in the fashion described of the "urging vessel" in the classical text. More recently, researchers have returned to this topic in the 1990's, and have discovered that the tipping-vessel since the Neolithic age was used in agriculture as an irrigation device. By simultaneously using the Xunzi, Wenzi, and other texts, as well as modern archaeological conclusions to re-read the Zhuangzi, it is possible to discover that the concept of the zhiyan is well-suited to an agricultural interpretation. In such an interpretive context, it is possible to speculate that the linguistic skepticism Zhuangzi expresses through the term is related to a cyclical temporality associated with the use of tipping-vessels for irrigation.

 

A NEVER-STABLE WORD: ZHUANGZI'S "ZHIYAN" 卮言 AND 'TIPPING-VESSEL' IRRIGATION - ResearchGate. Available from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/260104686_A_NEVER-STABLE_WORD_ZHUANGZI'S_ZHIYAN__AND_'TIPPING-VESSEL'_IRRIGATION

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites